Boehner: No deal at W.H. meeting

Speaker of the House John Boehner said there was no deal reached on the budget in a meeting Tuesday with the White House.

“The Speaker told the president that the House will not be put in a box and forced to choose between two options that are bad for the country (accepting a bad deal that fails to make real spending cuts, or accepting a government shutdown due to Senate inaction),” according to the release from Boehner’s office.

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Funding for the federal government runs dry on Friday, leaving a mere three-and-a-half days to hash out a deal to keep the government open.

House Republicans announced their third conference meeting of the week, slated for Wednesday afternoon, to discuss spending.

Boehner, speaking to the media flanked by his leadership colleagues Tuesday afternoon, said he is continuing to fight for the highest cuts he can get, with policy riders remaining in the discussion.

“We’ve made clear that we’re fighting for the largest spending cuts possible,” Boehner said. “And we’re talking about real spending cuts here, no smoke and mirrors. It was also made clear that there was never an agreement of $33 billion, that we’re going to continue the fight for, again, the largest cuts possible. And we’re not going to allow the Senate or the White House to put us in a box where we have to make a choice between two bad options: cutting a bad deal this week in order to keep the government open or allow the government to shut down due to Senate inaction.”

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor already accused the White House Tuesday of setting up a shutdown by rejecting a short-term deal that would slash $12 billion and keep the government running for another week.

“The White House has indicated now that they are already rejecting that notion,” Cantor said of the proposal, “raising the risk for a government shutdown.”

The Appropriations Committee released a bill that would fund the government for a week, but cuts $12 billion and keeps the Defense Department funded.

White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters Tuesday that the president would prefer a long-term deal, rather than a week-by-week “toll booth” approach to the budget.

“It is counterproductive, we think, to assume that we have to negotiate a short-term CR when we have an agreement on the table that can be reached for the full fiscal year,” Carney said.